Many plastic bottles currently finding use in the marketplace employ integral hollow handles to permit the customer to facilely hold them. A common type of handle assumes the form of a hollow tube formed integrally with the body of the container. The handle itself is hollow and retains fluid communication with the interior of the bottle. Thus, this type of handle itself accommodates some small portion of the goods contained in the bottle.
The type of handle which will contain some of the goods of the bottle has not always proved desirable. This represents the situation especially where the bottle contains ingredients, especially in liquid form, that may spoil. Thus, the goods in the handle may not entirely drain into the remainder of the bottle. Rather they remain in their original location and may undergo spoilage and contaminate the remainder of the bottle's contents.
Another type of handle also is hollow but has no direct fluid communication with the bottle's interior. Thus, the handle receives no contents and accordingly cannot contribute to the spoilage of the bottle's contents. Yet, the handle must become hollow during formation so that it may support the bottle and avoid sharp edges which could injure the user's hand. With no fluid communication to the interior of the bottle, this type of handle will receive its air pressure, during the molding of the bottle, directly from the mold. It does this through a needle having access to the handle's interior.
However, upon completion, the handle has a small opening to the exterior where the needle had entered to provide the air pressure. Liquids and other materials may enter the handle through this opening and spoil. Furthermore, the user of this type of bottle may wish to heat its contents through the use of a microwave oven. Should any liquid enter the handle through the small opening, it would become heated in the oven. When the consumer attempts to grab the handle, the heat from the liquid could cause the handle to become sufficiently hot to burn her. Accordingly, the search continues to provide molded bottles having more desirable handles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,087,406 to Krall et al. shows the molding of a container having a hollow handle. The handle receives its air through a channel passing directly to the moil, or flash. However, it does not suggest how to avoid having an opening in the handle upon the removal of the flash.
In comparison, D. L. Peters, in his U.S. Pat. No. 3,342,916, provides a blow molded, hollow jar top with an integral, hollow handle. The interior of the handle communicates with the interior of the top. Peters blow molds the article through an air hole located in the flash attached to the handle and having air channels leading to it. He does not suggest, however, an enclosed hollow handle completely separate from the remainder of the article. Again, in Peters, the removal of the flash results in the handle having holes which permit fluid communication between the interior of the handle and the exterior of the article.